Blue Jasmine - 4 smiles

 Cate Blanchett’s performance as Jasmine in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine,” is spectacular. And clearly Allen had Tennessee Williams’ Blanche DuBois in mind when he wrote this script. Jasmine is Blanche’s contemporary Upper East Side iteration, a sad, self-medicating woman whose rapidly fraying mental state is barely camouflaged under layers of Chanel, carefully coiffed hair and frequent applications of vodka. The movie opens with Jasmine flying to San Francisco to stay with her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in order to escape troubles with her Wall Street executive husband, Hal (Alec Baldwin) and begin a new life. Once in Ginger’s shabby apartment, Jasmine’s already fragile composure begins to crack. Her compulsive small talk becomes even more desperate and her memories of better times, on Park Avenue, in the Hamptons, of accepting jewelry from an adoring husband, begin to intrude more insistently. Jasmine’s former happiness is tied to Hal’s wealth, which she enjoyed while looking the other way as he slickly stole from his investors (think Madoff). Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Ginger encourages her beautiful sister to join her on depressing double dates and to get a job. Caught between the awful realities of her past and her present, Jasmine begins to resemble a brittle doll.

Blanchett makes Jasmine at once touching, off-putting and cracked in her grand delusions. And although this movie is often difficult to watch, Blanchett is mesmerizing. The movie is also rich with dynamic supporting performances from Hawkins, Cannavale (as Ginger’s blue collar boyfriend) and Andrew Dice Clay (as Ginger’s ex-husband). They play people who have no money but probably have a fuller sense of what life is. Jasmine tries to rise above them, but she ends up only fooling herself. “Blue Jasmine” is one of Woody Allen’s most compelling films and it certainly deserves several nominations come Academy Award time.  8/2/13